Lido - Bathing Establishment

Lido - Bathing Establishment

The Stabilimento Municipale Lido, the first “bathing establishment” on the Cervia Riviera, was built directly on the seafront in 1882 in front of what is now Viale Roma, based on a project by engineer. Ferdinando Forlivesi.

A walkway about one hundred meters long led to a central dancing platform, two coffee bar sheds, restaurants, toilets and two parallel rows of beach huts.

In 1928, to reduce assembling and maintenance costs, another one was built, also using wood, on the beach. Both the first and the second were taken down every year, at the end of the summer.In 1938, based on a project by engineer Clemente Pedretti, a masonry structure was put up, which was destroyed six years later by TODT (the construction company working in Nazi Germany and in all occupied countries).

the beachCervia was the last, among neighbouring towns, to exploit the potential of tourism. In 1873 a first poster was published to promote Cervia as “seaside resort”, with disappointing results due to the limited municipal funds. It was the pinewood that provided the financial means: the serious damage wrought in 1879-80 by a bitterly cold winter produced a large stock of timber to sell. This made it possible to immediately arrange for the drilling of an artesian well (an absolute novelty at the time), supplying Cervia with excellent drinking water. Then, before the summer of 1882, the few wooden beach huts on the beach, in front of what is now Via Roma, were replaced by the first “bathing establishment”: an hour’s bathing, with costume and towel to dry off, cost 30 cents.